Man-elephant conflicts usually happen inside forests or villages near forests. But a more serious conflict is happening daily in Kerala or more precisely inside temples and their vicinity during festivals. The temple festival season (February-April) coincides with summer. No temple festival is complete without the parading of elephants. In fact, organisers vie with one another in parading the maximum number of elephants.
Incidents of elephants turning violent and killing mahouts and bystanders are increasing year after year. If we probe deeply, every killer elephant will have a tale of brutal torture to tell. It is widely known that elephants are tortured right from their capture. Domestication is a misnomer for crude forms of torture. Physical pain is inflicted on the poor animal to buy obedience. The mahouts believe that only a tortured elephant can be coerced into submission.
The animal's plight does not end with the ‘initiation.' The elephant keepers beat the animals at the slightest sign of disobedience. They are denied food and water to teach them a lesson.
Inebriated mahouts have been known to torture their elephants without any sense of guilt. It is said the tortured elephant does not forget the ill- treatment easily and wreaks vengeance on the tormentors when its endurance limit is crossed.
The elephants' real nightmare starts with the festival season, which falls in the peak summer season. They are made to work for long hours without rest, food and water. The government has formulated the Kerala Captive Elephant (Management & Maintenance) rules to ensure that the pachyderms are treated humanely. But the rules often are violated with impunity. Temple officials turn a blind eye to the cruel treatment.
Most captive elephants are owned by individuals who make money renting them for festivals and film shoots. For most owners, animal welfare is not a priority. There are about 700 captive elephants in Kerala.
Elephants have been banned from circuses. They why should they be allowed to be tortured in the name of religion? There is no scriptural sanction for parading temple deities on elephants. Places of worship should not turn into torture chambers for dumb animals that cannot fight for their rights.
According to a report in The Hindu, December 05, 2010, “most captive elephants have been captured from the wild. They have been like orphans, bereft of the elders who would normally mentor and teach them. As a consequence, traumatised elephants have become aggressive against people, other animals and even one another; their behaviour is comparable to that of humans who have experienced genocide, other types of violence, and social collapse. Elephants have the same depth and range of emotions as humans.” Some people have advocated tightening and strict enforcement of rules to prevent torture. But this is a failed strategy because neither the Forest Department nor the police has the manpower or the will to enforce the law.
The Central government declared elephant a National Heritage Animal based on the report of the Elephant Task Force (ETF). But other recommendations of the ETF like banning private ownership for commercial purposes and the creation of a National Elephant Conservation Authority, are yet to be implemented.
The government must take over custody of all captive elephants after compensating the owners. The mahouts need to be compensated for the loss of livelihood and rehabilitated. Kerala can disperse the 700 or so captive elephants in camps in various districts. The income from visiting tourists will not only meet the expenses for maintaining the animals but also bring in a tidy sum as profit.
Abuse of animals in the name of religion cannot be allowed to continue. Let the torture of captive elephants end once and for all.
Keywords: man-elephant conflict, elephant torture
Animals like elephants,donkeys,horses etc., have been used by men as vehicles for personal transport and for carrying goods from time immemorial till the power driven vehicles came into existence. Elephants and horses have also been used in warfare. Therefore it cannot be said that the elephants get agitated when they are used in religious festivals. But I personally feel that the elephants are more likely to get agitated and even driven to madness when they hear the deafening sound of the drums and the crashing of the cymbals during the religious ceremonies.
Temple festivals through ages have always been cultural events also. Most of ancient indian literatures speaks of temples caring for elephants .
Loudspeakers blaring offensive music,donations being collected,elephantowners becoming very powerful lobby - these are brazen,rampant signs of commercialization. Solution : get rid of commercialization.not the elephant procession itself.
Domestication of wild animals is as old as human race. In most other cases, people take a moderate stance and think that domestication done the right way is good and do not recommend doing away with the process itself. So why not do the same in this case too ???
"For most owners, animal welfare is not a priority" sums up the poor state of governance. Ineffective implementation of animal laws emboldens owners. How about reforming that ??
Hindu scriptures infact say that offering water alone is enough for worship. but a temple festival is both a religious and community event.
In the end i say : Conduct the elephant procession the right way. its part of my ancient tradition.
When people are treated like cattle and there is scant regard for scantity of life, how can you expect the human beings to treat animals differently.
During my temple visit, we observed the mahout wack the elephant because it disobeyed him. most people were mute spectators and when I did condone the mahout, he just shrugged it off.
As far as I know, temple festivals in Kerala ( most of them at least)
have acquired a commercial orientation.Huge money is spent ( collected
from donations ) on light music, dance, etc which have no religious
significance. Loudspeakers blare out offensive film music during day
time shattering the peace of the neighborhood. What is so religious
about these?
Nobody can point out a scripture where it has been stated that
elephants should carry images of deities.Let us not justify a
practice by giving it a religious slant. Festivals need piety not
grandeur.
Owners of elephants are a powerful lobby. Some of them are temple
trusts.So far no elephant owner has been booked under any law.
Elephant camps sound ridiculous but there are a couple of them in
Kerala which are maintained very well. We cannot send 700 captive
elephants into the forests.
It is not the fault of the Hindu religion ( I am a Hindu) but should
we treat temple festivals as cultural entertainment?
Excellent article which brought into light the suffering of poor mute
animals.India is a land of contradictions. People worship snakes as
long as they are in temples and the moment they are out, on just
seeing it at a far-off distance, they chase it and the poor snake will
meet a ruthless end. The situation is no different in case of
elephants,tigers etc wherein each has different style of getting
tortured. People should come out of their ignorance and add a bit
reasoning in what they are doing. Keeping fingers crossed and hope
many such enlightening articles come into light.
Harikrishnan and Swarna - traditions are meant to be changed. in earlier times we did not know how intelligent these animals are, and how their family structure is. Now we know that elephants are highly social animals, they also have families and even grieve for their dead. No religion or tradition can justify the cruel and outdated practice of having an elephant in a temple, where a lot of noise is created during festivals. We pray to Lord Ganesha and also torture elephants, how is this sensible? Religion should be liberating, not a torture. A baby elephant that has been snatched away from its family, will not have any oneness that you are talking about. Healthy and good does not mean natural. An elephant is born to live in a forest, not roam around in cities for humans.
Elephants have a long time been part of temple festivals adding grandeur to processions. This should not be stopped. Owners who torture elephants have to be punished under prevention of cruelty to animals act. What is required is generous funds allocated for temples to own and keep elephants in good and healthy conditions. There is no sense in blaming religion for that as the writer seems to have done. Our temple festivals inspire a sense of religiosity and a sense of oneness. His solution of sending elephants to 'camps' is ridiculous considering that many badly maintained camps and zoos are virtual death traps for animals.
Elephants should be left alone to roam in the forests. Why do they have to be domesticated to live in temples?
Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises the actions of "whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship, or any object held sacred by any class of persons". Its sibling, Section 295A, outlaws "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class". Section 153B goes further, proscribing "any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities". Alarmingly, given the sweeping generalities in which these laws are written, truth is not an admissible defense.
Cruelty to any living thing is to be banned.All wild animals and birds kept in captive should be released to the wild/nature.There should be no domestication of wild animals and birds.Only those animals and birds which are closer to humans and human habitations should be allowed to be bred by the public.Notwithstanding the traditions followed for centuries in these parts of India and the steps taken by Govts to take care of the animals,it is time to take corrective action by the govts and end cruelty for the sake of satisfying easthetic value of the humans!
Elephant training is cruel and traumatising, they are wild animals and they shoud remain so. Why not replace them with robots? or any domestic animal...horses look very grand as well and there are non-violent ways of training them. Similarly, pig, goat, and cow slaughter is also cruel and should be carefully monitored. Religious beliefs are no excuse for uncivilised behaviour in an ancient country like ours.
I have observed on several occasions, the mahuts beating and poking the elephants mercilessly for no valid reasons. They used to be in a totally drunk condition, being unfit for any reasonable discussions.
Wonderful article!While Thrissur Pooram has been an aestheic show of vast number of decorated elephants fascinating the viewers cheering with sounds of drums the author has taken a step forward dealing with the psychology of elephants.It is sad to think that the innocent creatures are starved to learn obedience and treated with violence to make a grand show of the festival.No wonder the elephants wait for the appropriate hour to wreak vengence against their masters.The elephants have become well informed. It is for the mahouts to apply their mind beyond commercial angle and lend humane treatment to the elephants.
Elephants are used in Kerala for temple functions for centuries and it
is used in festivities which are even recognized by UNESCO , what we
need is not the entire abolition of usage of elephants but strict
rules regarding up keep and medical check ups.Which can give a
solution to the process called "vattal" which is the practice of not giving water and food to elephant in order to prevent the musth fluid flowing out , this causes trouble for identifying musth elephants , and one more solution is to give people proper awareness regarding elephants. During both this years Thrissur Pooram and Kodalmanikyam incidents it was people who made the elephant run by giving false indications to run and during the course of panic the elephants also panicked and they also ran.
It is heartening to read about torture on elephants in God's own
country. How can one be so cruel to torture in animals. Humans are
degrading day by day as incidence of torture only show their crualty.
First we are driving out these animals from their homes in forests, then
we are torturing them. Definitely they will take revenge. Kudos to the
author for bringing this issue to limelight. The govt must take
stringent action against the offenders.
brilliant article. we pray to Lord Ganesha to give us good luck, but in the same tone torture the very animal that represents him. Religious beliefs should not take over the rights of other animals, its high time that these gentle giants were not used in temples or any other place of worship. We have tortured them enough.
Who knows what torture the reigning deity of the temple goes through
in his mind,when he sees an elephant that is born to roam the woods
liberally,is made to carry the God or other paraphernalia of the
religious ceremony.Let us meditate!
As the story goes,Aeons ago Lord Vishnu(whom most of these temples
belong),rushed immediately to save an elephant when he heard of the
wails of this pachyderm that was being harassed by crocodile.Since
then,this one crocodile,metamorphosed into hundreds of human
crocodiles in the form of devotees,temple authorities,mahouts,callous
government officials etc.
In this age of Kali,the mute tusker still prays,but Lord Vishnu
sitting on the same animal looks on helplessly remaining still muter.
Absolutely agree. Although there is a special sense of the aesthetic in
watching elephants at for instance, the Thrissur Pooram, use of
elephants should be banned if elephants are being tortured. Also, when
you think of it seriously, it's quite a suffering for the elephants to
just stand for hours in the heat, with people drumming and swarming all
around them. And, even one human life lost because of the entire thing,
makes it worthless. We can easily live with the aesthetic of an
elephant-less Pooram.
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